spook

Forms

spook n (plural spoken, diminutive spookje n)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle Dutch spoick (“frightening figure, ghost”), recorded only in 1477 in an eastern dictionary, the Teuthonista; because the record is so late and eastern, the EWN considers that the word may have been taken over from Middle Low German spōk, which is also the source of German Spuk.^[2][3] Wiktionary gives the Middle Dutch forms spoke and spooc and reconstructs Proto-West Germanic *spōk.^[1] The Teuthonista also has a feminine ⟨spoke⟩ for “witchcraft, divination”.^[4]

The further origin is unknown.^[2][5] De Vries reconstructs Proto-Germanic *spauka, pointing to Swiss German ⟨zerspäuken⟩ “drive away by haunting”, but calls every explanation uncertain: the comparison with Latvian spīgana (“dragon, witch”) and Lithuanian spingėti (“to shine”) does not fit the vowels, one with Old English specan (“to speak”) fails on the meaning, and one with pūca (modern puck) needs extra forms.^[6][7] De Vries and De Tollenaere ask whether it might come from a substrate language, perhaps of the people of the megalithic tombs with their cult of the dead.^[6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Teuthonista of 1477 gives spoick among words for a bogeyman, a mask and a frightening figure, beside voirspoick “omen”.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

Plantin (1573) and Kiliaan (1599) record spoocke, Kiliaan labelling it as a word of Guelders, Frisia and Holland.^[3][7] In the 17th century the word could still mean an omen, a sense now lost; the ghostly apparition, especially the wandering spirit of a dead person, is the sense that remained.^[8][2] From the 17th century it was also applied to dreams and to imagined dangers, as in spoken zien “to see dangers that are not there”, and for a time to devils and evil spirits.^[8]

Used of people, spook has meant an unbearable woman or girl since at least 1844, and in the south a pale, thin or ugly person.^[8][9][10] Modern Dutch also uses it for a looming threat, as in het rode spook “the red menace” of communism.^[9]

English took spook from Dutch; it is first recorded in 1801, in a dialect poem credited to an old Dutchman in Albany.^[11][12] German Spuk (from 1691) and the Scandinavian words, such as Swedish spöke, come from Low German or Dutch.^[2][3][12] Through Afrikaans spook the word reached Zulu and other South African languages, and it was also borrowed into Papiamentu as spoki.^[12][1]

Timeline

• 1477 – Middle Dutch spoick appears in the Teuthonista.^[2][13]
• 1573 – Plantin records the spelling spoocke.^[3][7]
• 1608 – Spoock “supernatural apparition” is recorded.^[2]
• 1625 – The old sense “omen” is quoted.^[8]
• 1662 – A text speaks of a haunting by night, the ghost sense.^[8]
• 1801 – English spook is first recorded.^[11]
• 1844 – The word is used of an unbearable woman.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ghost, the wandering spirit of a dead person: In dat oude huis zou een spook rondwaren.^[9][1]
2. A spectre, a feared image or threat; something imagined: een spook van de verbeelding.^[9][1]
3. (informal) An unbearable girl or woman.^[9][10][1]
4. (Belgium, informal) A pale, thin, ugly person.^[9]

Word family

• spookambtenaar
• spookdier
• spookdorp
• spookhuis
• spookrijden
• spookrijder
• spookschip
• spookstad
• spooktrein
• spookuur
• spookverhaal
• spookwoord
• spookachtig
• voorspook
• spookgeschiedenis

Related words

• spoken
• English spook
• German Spuk

Usage notes

Spoken zien means to fear dangers that do not exist.^[8] Er waart een spook door Europa is taken from the opening sentence of Marx and Engels's Communist Manifesto of 1848.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Philippa, Marlies; Debrabandere, Frans; Quak, Arend; Schoonheim, Tanneke; Sijs, Nicoline van der (2003–2009), Etymologisch woordenboek van het Nederlands, 4 vols., Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press; online via etymologiebank.nl
3. ^ a b c d e Vries, Jan de; Tollenaere, Félicien de (2004), Etymologisch woordenboek: onze woorden, hun oorsprong en ontwikkeling, 23rd ed., Utrecht: Het Spectrum, p. 360
4. ^ a b Verwijs, Eelco; Verdam, Jacob (1885–1929), Middelnederlandsch woordenboek, 11 vols., 's-Gravenhage: Nijhoff; gtb.ivdnt.org
5. ^ Vercoullie, Jozef (1925), Beknopt etymologisch woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal, 3rd ed., 's-Gravenhage / Gent: Nijhoff / Van Rysselberghe & Rombaut
6. ^ a b Vries, Jan de (1971), Nederlands etymologisch woordenboek, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b c Veen, P. A. F. van; Sijs, Nicoline van der (1997), Etymologisch woordenboek: de herkomst van onze woorden, 2nd ed., Utrecht / Antwerpen: Van Dale Lexicografie
8. ^ a b c d e f g Vries, Matthias de; Winkel, L. A. te, et al. (1882–1998), Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal, 29 vols., 's-Gravenhage / Leiden: Nijhoff / Sijthoff / SDU; supplement 2001; gtb.ivdnt.org
9. ^ a b c d e f g Van Dale Groot woordenboek hedendaags Nederlands (2014), Utrecht / Antwerpen: Van Dale Uitgevers
10. ^ a b Coster, Marc de (2007), Groot scheldwoordenboek: van apenkont tot zweefteef, Antwerpen: Standaard
11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b c Sijs, Nicoline van der (2010), Nederlandse woorden wereldwijd, Den Haag: Sdu; with additions from the Uitleenwoordenbank (2015)
13. ^ Sijs, Nicoline van der (2001), Chronologisch woordenboek: de ouderdom en herkomst van onze woorden en betekenissen, Amsterdam / Antwerpen: Veen